Flawless play continues for Huskies tennis

The Owatonna boys tennis team continued its flawless start to the 2022 season by finishing last week 3-0 with wins over Austin, Faribault and Rochester John Marshall/Lourdes.
The Huskies cruised by both Austin and Faribault with 7-0 wins, while John Marshall/Lourdes put up a fight and were only defeated 4-3.
Most recently, Owatonna defended its home courts effectively last Saturday with two clean sweeps against Austin and Faribault.
Against Austin, Owatonna’s most dominant athletes were No. 3 singles athlete Thomas Herzog as well as the team’s No. 2 doubles pairing of Aiden Engel and Damien Boubin.
Both matches ended with Herzog, Engel and Boubin finishing their opponents in two sets with back-to-back perfect 6-0 scores.
Owatonna found similar success against Faribault, however, the Huskies featured four perfect 6-0 sweeps in two sets to take home the win.
The Huskies No. 4 singles athlete Anthony Weide, as well as the team’s No. 1 through No. 3 doubles pairings of Nils Gantert and Charlie Tucker, Engel and Boubin, and Finn Loveless and Thomas Hanson all finished perfect against Faribault.
Earlier in the week, Owatonna faced a harder test against a John Marshall/Lourdes squad that kept a close 4-3 score against the Huskies, but eventually fell in the end.
Owatonna was forced to resort to the strong play of its doubles teams to nullify the John Marshall/Lourdes’ dominance in singles where the opposing side won three of the four singles matches.
Owatonna’s lone winner in singles was No. 4 athlete Thomas Oien, who won a close match in three sets with scores of 4-6, 7-5 and 7-5.
In doubles competition, Owatonna won all three matches to keep itself in contention for the win.
The usual pairings of Tucker and Gantert, as well as Engel and Boubin were followed by a strong showing from the No. 3 pairing of Casey Pederson and Levi Kubicek.
Aside from one 7-5 winning set for Tucker and Gantert, no John Marshall/Lourdes doubles pairing won more than three games against any Owatonna doubles pairing.
Owatonna coach Curt Matejcek’s squad continues to impress in Big Nine Conference play and currently sits atop the Big Nine standings with a perfect 5-0 in-conference record to go with a 6-0 overall record.
Up next for Owatonna is an away match against Rochester Century at the Rochester Outdoor Tennis Center on Thursday at 4:30 p.m.